Hello all,

When I went out to my compost bins this afternoon, I was greeted by this sight (photo above). It's of the viburnum opulus in the foreground and what's left of the buttery yellow leaves of the ginkgo biloba in the background. Having deposited my compostables in the bin, I proceeded to cut some of the viburnum for an arrangement, below.

Viburnum opulus. mahonia flowers and aeoniums

I was asked recently to make two arrangements for a client, wanting to honour her partner's mother, who had just passed away interstate. The brief I received was as follows :

"My partner’s mum has sadly just passed away - in Queensland so he could not get there and cannot attend the service. We are in Melbourne. 

She was an ikebana master and I thought it would be nice to give him an ikebana arrangement instead of a ‘normal’ arrangement and also so we can display it while streaming the service. Hopefully it will help bring a little touch of her to him given he cannot be present."

It was an absolute honour for me to make the arrangements for the service of an ikebana master. (The last time I did that was when we lost Hazel McNaught and I helped with the flowers for the chapel). The arrangements had to be delivered to Flinders, over an hour's drive away, which meant that I had to employ some complicated mechanics to ensure that they arrived in one piece. Thankfully, they did, apart from a small adjustment. Here they are:

Naturalistic arrangement using sprayed azalea branches, disbud chrysanthemums
and cotoneaster berries in a resin container

Modern arrangement in glass container, using umbrella grass stems creating surfaces,
chrysanthemums, lisianthus and nandina domestica nana

The client seemed genuinely delighted with the arrangements, making the whole exercise satisfying and worth while.


Just like a kid with a new toy, I couldn't wait to use this new container, an op-shop purchase. I'm ashamed to admit that the sprayed corky elm branches have been sitting beside the garage in between the clivias for weeks, waiting to be put away. I was looking for some material to use vertically and there they were.

Corky elm, lisianthus and nandina domestica nana

And here are a couple of very tall arrangements. The first one was made because, whilst clearing all the dead leaves around my strelitzia reginae, I found this bent leaf. It's interesting because the stem and part of the leaf is green whilst the rest is dry. The rose is called 'Lolita'.

I made the second arrangement so that I could use the proteas which I cut from my son's neighbours' garden. With permission, of course. I found these partially open flowers quite charming. Store bought ones are always fully open and the stems dead straight.

Strelitzia reginae leaf and rose

Sprayed palm inflorescence and proteas

I leave you with this very simple but, for me, very pleasing camellia arrangement.

Bye for now,
Emily